More than 150 of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s classmates at Columbia University wrote a letter of support to congressional leaders this week.
The alumni wrote about how the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals judge distinguished himself as an undergraduate student in the letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
“He was a serious and brilliant student who earned deep respect from teachers and students alike,” the former classmates wrote. “With an encyclopedic knowledge on a staggering array of subjects, he could be counted on for his insightful, logical and well-reasoned comments. He carried a full and challenging course-load, finishing in three years and graduating Phi Beta Kappa. So special were his intellect, academic record and character that even then — some thirty years ago — there was a shared sense that he was poised for a meaningful and purposeful future.”
The former Columbia students said Gorsuch’s tenure at Columbia was marked by his “unflagging commitment to respectful and open dialogue on campus.” The alumni continued to lavish him as a “man of unyielding integrity” who they often joked was a “modern-day Jimmy Stewart.”
Hearings on Gorsuch’s high court nomination begin in the Senate on March 20.
